Chasdev's post about the JD branded pellets made from their retired barrels made me want to try these when I saw them at the store:

Unlike the Jack Daniels pellets, these were all wood. The whiskey scent was VERY mild though. Not sure if the process of grinding them down and then compressing it into pellets squeezed out the booze, but the "devil's cut" was apparently very small here, LOL. This is the wood I used for my Santa Maria tri tip in the post I made just a little while ago. No whiskey flavor noticed, but to be fair, the meat had a rub and glaze both on it.

One thing I can say in it's favor is that the pellets must have a very high BTU rating, because the whole time that tri tip cooked, the Rec Tec barely used any pellets.

I'm going to try again tonight (we're doing ribs), and I'll let y'all know if we notice any flavor difference. So far they just seem like a good quality white oak pellet though.

Oh yeah... Gotta love the warning labels:

The scary thing is, these labels get put onto products because some doorknob actually tried to do what the label warns against, LOL. Here's yer sign...

Well, I tried them on ribs today... Unfortunately I still can't give a 100% accurate assessment since the grill was acting strange today.

Ribs cooked an hour fast. The controller said the grill was running at 250, but my Redi-Chek wifi thermometer said it was running at 50 degrees hotter. When I dropped it to 200, the thermometers slowly came into agreement on temp. I can't blame the wood for the controller reading low. If the wood was burning hot, the controller is supposed to adjust and display an accurate actual temperature.

I'd feel better reporting on the wood if the cook had gone cleanly. As it is, I salvaged the ribs nicely though. What I can report is that at 250 or lower temps, I definitely got good smoke. A bit more than the Traeger or Rec Tec pellets I've used thus far, but not excessive. The wood definitely has good BTU output too. I'm just eyeballing the hopper, but I'd guess I used about a pound per hour. The whiskey scent was still mild but I noticed a little more today. My allergies were probably clearer today, LOL.

With the rub and sauce on the ribs, it's hard to be certain about any whiskey flavor. I *think* I caught a faint hint of it though. Either way, the pellets gave good smoke flavor and smoke ring; comparable to a good quality white oak.